INBDE Study Plan: Our Suggested 8-Week Approach

500 multiple-choice items over two days: three sections of 100 standalone items, then case-based sections of 60, 70 and 70 items. Each item has one correct or best answer.

Day 1: 8 hours 15 minutes. Day 2: 4 hours 15 minutes (12 hours 30 minutes in total, including the optional tutorials, breaks and survey). Both days at the same test center, the second within 7 days of the first.

For the fee, the passing score and retakes, see our guide to the INBDE format, scoring, cost and retakes.

This is our suggested 8-week plan, built on the Dental Board Tutor question bank. It is study advice, not an official JCNDE recommendation, and you can stretch or shorten it to fit your schedule.

1. Weeks 1–2: Get a baseline. Take a few 40-question quick practice sessions across every specialty and read the explanation after each answer, also when you were right. Then check Focus Areas on your Study home: it shows the specialties where your percentage correct is lowest.
2. Weeks 3–5: Work one specialty at a time. Open a specialty page and start quizzes in Unseen mode, so each session brings questions you have never answered. Begin with your weakest specialties. If you think a question is wrong, use “Report an issue with this question” after you answer and we review it.
3. Weeks 6–7: Go back to your misses. Switch your weakest specialties to Wrong-first mode: it re-drills the questions you answered wrong first, then fills the session with others. Read the explanation again before you move on.
4. Week 8: Mix everything and build stamina. Take 40-question quick practice sessions across every specialty, several in a row, to get used to long sittings. Keep the last days for light review of your misses.

Each specialty page lets you pick a mode for the quiz:

• Random: Mixed selection, prefers unseen.
• Wrong-first: Re-drills your past wrong answers. Our pick for review.
• Unseen: Only questions you've never seen. Our pick for covering new ground.

Questions are tagged by specialty, including Pharmacology, Oral Pathology, Periodontics, Endodontics, Oral Radiology, Pediatric Dentistry, Ethics & Law, Operative Dentistry. Answer a question and you see whether you got it right and why.

Quick practice starts a session across every specialty in one click: 10, 20 or 40 questions. Our advice: on a busy day, a 10-question session keeps you in the habit; keep the 40-question sessions for days with more time.

Results are reported as pass or fail. Behind them is a scale score from 49 to 99, with 75 as the minimum passing score; a scale score is not the number of questions answered correctly.

Our advice: watch your percentage correct in each specialty, and keep working the ones that stay lowest in Focus Areas. A good practice record is a useful sign, but no practice score can promise a result on the official exam.